Finding Hair Nirvana

Guest Post by Colleen Coplick from BuzzNetworker.com

Almost every woman I know has a complicated relationship with her hair. She either loves it, hates it or is in a “I just don’t CARE anymore!” place.

I think I have finally found Hair Nirvana however.

I’ve had a rocky relationship with hair dressers – particularly colorists – most of my adult life. My last girl was fine, and did a good job, but insisted on using these KILLER awesome colors in my hair, that were, unfortunately, basically non-removable. Bleaching the hair did no good – the color only intensified. It had to be removed with the special company-provided remover. Sure, my red lasted AGES but when I wanted to change, which I usually do about every 6 months, it was nearly impossible.

When she finally moved to another city and tried to commute in to see local clients, I finally got fed up and decided it wasn’t worth it.

I waited. I hunted. I scouted and, most importantly, I talked to people. I wanted to know what they loved about their salon.

I found a place not far from me called Chemically Addicted (www.chemicallyaddictedhair.ca) which not only got rave reviews from the people I saw walking out of there, they also had a senior colorist who ONLY does color. I went in for a consult.

Because I had the crazy color on my hair, I got defaulted to that same senior colorist, who also happened to own the salon. He did what I asked and gave me a gorgeous mane of bright red short curly hair with a bright blonde streak in the front. I fell in love on the spot.

Four or five months go by. I clearly need to get my hair done again, but I wasn’t in the habit of going all the time. I ran into Jeremy (my colorist) in the park. He’s a lovely, slightly flamboyant gay man, and he comes rushing up to me:

“OHMYGOD! I was hoping to run into you! I had a dream about you! I know EXACTLY what we’re going to do to your hair. And you need to come in. Soon. When you call, book the last appointment of the day, bring beer and just have them tell me it’s you and you want to do what I told you about.” And then he proceeded to describe the new hair.

It was at this point that I gave up full control of my hair decisions to this… lunatic. (I say that with all the love in the world now, but seriously. If this guy had come rushing up to YOU and told you he had a dream about your hair, what would you think? Now I take it in stride, as you’ll soon see.)

That was my second appointment. The next one, I went in to get my bangs trimmed and ended up with extensions that turned me into a Rockergirl Fairy Princess. Which then led to the good extensions. Which lead to blonde and brunette and red extensions. Then just blonde and brunette, but LOOONG. That was the $1,000 hair appointment ($300 to purchase the hair, $600 including tip for “installation” and about $100 for product to take care of all this hair.)

That last set of extensions did last me almost 6 months however. When those came out, Jeremy decided I was destined to be a blonde. We took the extensions out, my stylist Trevor, gave me an almost Posh Spice type style, and Jeremy set to work, bleaching me out. I’ve been back once for a touch up, and we went blonder still.

I was gearing up to go back in this or next week to, I thought, go even blonder (Jeremy’s goal until Friday was *platinum blonde*), and then, my phone rang. It was Jeremy.

“Good news baby. I’ve had an epiphany. I don’t like you blonde anymore. You don’t like you blonde that much. I’m over it. We’re putting you back to red. It’ll have some really hot cherry red, some darker reds and some black. And you’re going to love it.”

I’ve always loved being a redhead, so this made me immensely happy. But it always makes me laugh when I try to explain to people that I don’t make decisions about my hair. I just grow the hair and make the appointment. Jeremy decides what we do to it. I have no decision making responsibilities whatsoever in this relationship.

People tell me frequently that they love my hair, and that they love how I can change my look so dramatically from day to day without batting an eye.

My advice to all of you who want fabulous hair or maybe that America’s Next Top Model hair makeover experience? Find someone with a vision that you trust. Sure, you might need to see them once or twice, but find that person you bond with and then let them be creative. You might be nervous, but remember if they make you look bad, they lose business. They’ll make you look like a star!